Abstract
Although the findings of second language (L2) studies conducted to date have provided evidence for the positive effect of written corrective feedback (hereafter feedback) on improving L2 learners’ writing grammatical accuracy, there is no conclusive evidence regarding which kind of feedback is more beneficial for enhancing L2 writing. This study compares the differential effects of giving and receiving unfocused direct feedback on improving Iranian EFL learners’ writing accuracy. To this end, 61 learners of English were randomly assigned to three groups, including a feedback giver group (n = 19), a feedback receiver group (n = 22), and a control group (n = 20). The participating groups took Cambridge English Preliminary Test (PET), completed four translation tasks as the treatment, and took two tests, namely a translation test and a picture description test. The data analysis indicated the effectiveness of the feedback provided by peers. Additionally, further data analysis revealed that the participants in the feedback giver group outperformed the participants in the feedback receiver and the control groups in translation and picture description tests, underscoring the positive effect of giving feedback on learners themselves rather than learners who receive feedback. The findings and potential pedagogical implications of the study are discussed in detail.
Highlights
IntroductionThe issue of providing written corrective feedback (hereafter feedback) has been an ongoing debate in second language acquisition (SLA) for almost three decades (for a review, study Reinders & Mohebbi, 2018)
The issue of providing written corrective feedback has been an ongoing debate in second language acquisition (SLA) for almost three decades
There is still no conclusive evidence concerning the efficacy of specific feedback strategies in improving second language (L2) learners’ writing accuracy
Summary
The issue of providing written corrective feedback (hereafter feedback) has been an ongoing debate in second language acquisition (SLA) for almost three decades (for a review, study Reinders & Mohebbi, 2018). Rouhi et al Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education (2020) 5:11 and unfocused feedback (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2009; Nemati, Alavi, & Mohebbi, 2019), direct and indirect feedback (Karim & Endley, 2019; Kim & Bowles, 2019), the feedback medium (Zhang, 2020), L2 learners and teachers’ perceptions, preferences, needs, and practices in writing tasks (Bahrouni & Tuzlukova, 2019; Motallebzadeh, Kondori, & Kazemi, 2020; Nemati, Alavi, Mohebbi, & Masjedlou, 2017; Raza, 2019), and the source of feedback, namely teacher and/or peer (Ferris, 1995; Hyland, 2000; Miao, Badger, & Zhen, 2006; Peterson & Portier, 2014; Zhang & McEneaney, 2020) These studies and their inconclusive and somehow contradictory findings have given rise to a great deal of discussion on the value of feedback in developing writing accuracy. This study might shed some light on the effects of peer feedback on enhancing L2 learners’ ability to write more accurately, especially for the learners who give peer feedback
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